PHOTOS: Afghanistan: Where Things Stand

Afghanistan National Poll

Field work for this ABC/BBC/ARD poll was conducted by the Afghan Center for Socio-Economic and Opinion Research in Kabul, a subsidiary of D3 Systems Inc., Vienna, Va. This interviewer approaches a settlement in the mountainous central province of Parwan.

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Afghanistan National Poll

Field work for this ABC/BBC/ARD poll was conducted by the Afghan Center for Socio-Economic and Opinion Research in Kabul, a subsidiary of D3 Systems Inc., Vienna, Va. This interviewer approaches a settlement in the mountainous central province of Parwan.

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Afghanistan National Poll

Face-to-face interviews were conducted by 168 trained Afghan interviewers working in supervised teams in each of the country's 34 provinces. Travel is difficult in much of Afghanistan; here interviewers struggle to get their car up a muddy road in the Northwestern province of Samangan. While about half the population rates local roads and other infrastructure negatively, rising numbers report road building, electricity and other development in their area.

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Afghanistan National Poll

Interviewers traveled to 194 randomly selected locales across the country; at each, from a random starting place, they followed a random route procedure to select households, and then randomly selected a respondent within each household to participate in the survey. Here an interviewer approaches a selected dwelling in Panjshir, in East-Central Afghanistan.

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Afghanistan National Poll

An interview in Kunar province, on the eastern border with Pakistan. The half-hour interviews were conducted from Dec. 11-23, in Dari or Pashto, the country's two languages, among a random sample of 1,534 Afghan adults.

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Afghanistan National Poll

A female interviewer meets with a respondent in the Northeastern province of Takhar. The poll found brighter expectations for the future, with seven in 10 Afghans saying the country is headed in the right direction, up sharply from a year ago. Resolution of the presidential election, better development and improved economic opportunities are among the factors.

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Afghanistan National Poll

Male and female interviewers worked in separate teams. Here a woman is interviewed at her home in the Western province of Ghor. This is ABC's fifth national survey in Afghanistan since 2005, part of its ongoing "Where Things Stand" series in Afghanistan and Iraq.

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Afghanistan National Poll

An interviewer meets with villagers during household selection in Kunduz, in the North. The survey's response rate was 86 percent.

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Afghanistan National Poll

Male respondents were interviewed only by male interviewers, female respondents by female interviewers. Here, respondent selection in Laghman province just east of Kabul.

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Afghanistan National Poll

An interviewer approaches a village in Parwan, north of Kabul. Eighty percent of Afghans live in rural areas, many with poor levels of development. Seven in 10 nonetheless rate their overall living conditions positively – but fewer when it comes to specifics such as security, electricity, medical care and infrastructure.

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Afghanistan National Poll

An interviewer crosses a river on foot to reach his selected sampling point.

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Afghanistan National Poll

A female interviewer wearing the traditional burka randomly selects a house in Samangan. Afghans divide evenly on who should decide whether to wear the burka – the woman herself, or her husband or father.

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Afghanistan National Poll

Interviewers traveled snowy roads in the Central region of Bamiyan.

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Afghanistan National Poll

Supervisors monitored or back-checked a sample of interviews. Here, a back-check in Kunar province.

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Afghanistan National Poll

In a country where subsistence farming is common, positive ratings of support for agriculture – the availability of seed, fertilizer and equipment – is up by 9 points from a year ago, albeit just to 45 percent. Here, an interview in a field in Takhar province.